Six Random Things

I got tagged by Daryl Cognito, owner of The Best Podcast In Calgary.  Check out Atomic Suburbia, then hurry back here.

Here are Six Random Things about me:

1.  I am still shocked to find myself living in a country whose goals for the Olympics are to finish in the top sixteen.  It takes some getting used to.
2. I graduated High School with Bob Costas.
3. I don't follow either of Canada's official sports, in either of Canada's official languages.
   
4. My curling team once scored an 8-ender.
   
5. I think that although it's just possible that Rick Mercer is not a jerk, he certainly does play one on TV.
6. I think "Little Mosque on the Prairie" is stupid, but I love "Corner Gas."

Tagging Barbra, Victor, John, Ron (and the other Ron), and Dean.

And now for the Rules.  Because of course there have to be Rules.  Eh?

1.  Link to the person who tagged you.
2.  Post the rules on the blog.
3.  Write six random things about yourself.
4.  Tag six people at the end of your post.
5.  Let each person know they have been tagged by leaving a comment on their blog.
6.  Let the tagger know when your entry is up.

Gonna Need A Bigger Basement

Hello fellow AtomicSuburbia.com listeners. Like you, I'm enjoying Daryl's search for Canadian Identity. Unlike you, perhaps, I am not Canadian. Even though I live here now, it takes some getting used to. And like Daryl, I am searching for what it means to be Canadian.

If you've stumbled in here without coming from the AtomicSurbia.com podcast, and you're in search of the essence of Canadian Identity, quick go right now and check out the podcast. (And hurry back here.)

If you've ended up here because your search engine suggested that this is a good place to convert Fahrenheit to Celsius, check the sidebar for the Scheherazade numbers, or check here for more.

Is There A Word For That?

I wrote some time ago about a trick I use to convert Celsius to Fahrenheit. The weather forecasts here give the temperature in degrees Celsius, and it takes some getting used to.
Here's the trick:

28 Celsius = 82 Fahrenheit
16 Celsius = 61 Fahrenheit
4 Celsius = 40 Fahrenheit

Now I know whether I need shorts or a winter coat. But I've been wondering if there is a name for a math palindrome.

I've started listening to the podcast version of "A Way With Words," the NPR radio show. People write or call with questions about the meaning of words, the origin of words, and the correct use of words. So I wrote them with my question, and now they want to talk to me and maybe put the conversation on the radio.

We'll see how it goes. If it works out, the broadcast would be on Saturday, March 24 and Sunday, March 25. The podcast would probably go up sometime that weekend.

I can't wait to find out what the word is!

Update: Host Grant Barrett's wife delivered their son a couple of weeks early, so the show will take a break. They plan to do the interview in late April.

Another update: We did the phone interview at the end of April. The show aired Saturday, May 26. It's a very nice show, and you should listen to the whole thing sometime. But if you just want this part, it's about 38 minutes in. Download or listen to the show here.

Talking To Themselves

Boing Boing has a post about Rick Mercer’s “Talking To Americans” joke.

Living in Canada, I often have the opportunity to see Rick Mercer's comedy. And I often pass it up.

Mercer can be funny and insightful, but the "Talking To Americans" bit, once just a segment on a half-hour program, then a series of one-hour specials, is nothing but the same joke over and over again. Americans are ignorant of Canada, but unhesitant to express opinions --- that's the joke. Ha ha.

Well, I get it. I get the joke. Ha ha. When can we stop hearing the joke?

I guess Canadians find the "Talking To Americans" joke funny because Canadians can't actually express an opinion, informed or not, without either prefacing the opinion with "Sorry" or adding "Sorry" to the end. It's that sort of passive-aggressive, snarky, stealth-opinion-expressing practice that makes Canadians seem unremittingly self-righteous, and at the same time timid, to Americans who must live among them. It takes some getting used to.

Ranting And Panting

The Poddog Show podcast is worth a listen. Daryl N Cognito hosts the podcast from Calgary, with his faithful canine companion, Kuma, co-hosting. Daryl talks about life and politics in Calgary, Alberta. Kuma recently interviewed "The Queen of Disobedience" at a local bark park.

You don't need an iPod to listen to a podcast. If you have one, or if you have another kind of mp3 player, you can transfer the podcast to your player and listen there. But you don't have to. You can listen right at your computer.

I like this podcast because of the Canadian content. Sandy likes it because of the Canine content. Check it out.

think BLUE

Got yours yet?

The thinkbluedems.com website says:

Think Blue bands are a reminder that elections matter every day, and a symbol of the importance of electing candidates who support democratic values.

There are more than 100,000 Think Blue bands on the wrists of people in all 50 states and more than 10 countries around the world. Click here to learn how you can join the ranks of Think Blue supporters.

Canadians don't wear items of clothing that tell you what party or candidate they support. They don't like to be asked how they are going to vote, and they don't like to be asked how they did vote. It takes some getting used to.

Another thing that takes some getting used to is not knowing when the next election will be held. There could never be bands with election dates on them here, because elections are called when the ruling party gets ready to call them. Oh sure, there's a set period of time within which you have to have an election, but you might have one ANY TIME in that period. Canadians think this is preferable to knowing years in advance. I haven't figured out yet why they think that. It's just a different system, modeled on the British system, but without as much intelligent rhetoric, and more singing of Nah Nah Nah Nah Hey Hey Goodbye.

This spring, it looked like the government would fall. As an American, it was hard not to find that alarming. We don't have governments falling. (As much as we'd sometimes like to.) But here, if the party in power can't get their legislation through Parliament, there can be a vote of no confidence, and the government falls, Parliament is dissolved, and an election is called.

Canadians seemed to take this all in stride. Emotions ranged from very blasé to very annoyed. The chief complaint seemed to be how much an election would cost. There had just been a federal election a year before. In the end, the government did not fall, and eventually all the legislators went home for the summer. ("On holiday.") For me, it was an anticlimax. I had been looking forward to the government falling. I've never seen that happen. Maybe next year, if Canadians can shake off the torpor that seems to envelop them whenever federal politics is discussed.

I can't vote here anyway. I CAN vote absentee, and I will. In the meantime, I have a couple of extra bands. Any Americans in Canada want to wear one? Email me.